Vest Financial LLC Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Vest Financial LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 5.2% in Q2, acquiring 7,404 additional shares, bringing its total holdings to 149,331 shares valued at approximately $53 million.
• Insider selling was reported as General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg and CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold a combined total of over $4 million in Visa shares, reflecting significant decreases in their positions.
• Several analysts recently upgraded Visa's price targets, with Macquarie raising its target from $380 to $425, while maintaining an "outperform" rating for the stock.

Vest Financial LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 149,331 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 7,404 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $53,020,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth about $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 82.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, 1 North Wealth Services LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the first quarter worth $38,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $389.00.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $341.90 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $344.30 and a 200 day moving average of $346.83. The stock has a market cap of $626.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $280.78 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.

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